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The worst of it was over in a flurry ofThe confusion went on as cowboys snared the stragglers fro, heavy saddles like they were pillows

Lorna pushed into the chaos, frantic to find Webb and Arthur Shoving the bunched haunches of nervous horses out of the way and ducking the tossing heads of others, she forced her way to the place where she had last seen the boys Everyone was running,in panicked breaths and struggling to control it

“Here, ma’am,” a voice said

She hardly had ti Webb into her arms It was relief that collapsed her knees rather than the four-and-a-half-year-old’s weight Her fingers gripped his arm while her hand trembled over his face and hair He had a stunned, wide-eyed look at all this counshots

“Are you okay?” Her voice treh she tried to appear very calm There was a lump in her throat and the dampness of tears in her eyes She kept them open wide

“Yeah” He nodded “I wasn’t scared, Mom Honest”

“Of course you weren’t” Her smile quivered

“Were you?” he wondered

“A little,” she aded him with a mother’s fierceness, then forced herself to draw back “Where’s your brother? Do you know?”

He shook his head “I dropped my rope Zeke said I could find it later”

“Yes, later” Lorna nodded and began looking around “First we have to find your brother”

The staht it would have afforded Behind her, there was the digging of hooves, and Lorna glanced over her shoulder to see eight riders gallop into the graying night She guessed Benteen ith theuish the riders

Their departure left a degree of quiet in the ca cowboys attempted to restore soered nearby Lorna gripped Webb’s hand tightly as she stood up She took a step, not certain where to look first for Arthur

When she saw Rustythe child in his arh her As he caht Rusty’s face was nearly as white as his whiskers There was a sunken, hollow grief in his eyes A pounding fear began to beat in her, growing louder and louder with each step that brought him nearer

Her glance fell to the boy-child lying so motionless in his arms His eyes were closed, his face innocent with sleep, but he didn’t have his finger in his mouth She tried to smile—tried to say his name and wake him up